British naval heritage at risk of being sold off

Artefacts from HMS Victory could be auctioned to pay for its excavation by US company

Items such as this bronze cannon recovered in 2008 from the wreck of HMS Victory could be sold

Archaeologists are up in arms over the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) decision to transfer the management of an 18th-century British warship to a newly formed charitable body, the Maritime Heritage Foundation, which has entered into an agreement with the US ocean salvage company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, to raise the wreck. They fear that the public/private partnership will lead to the deaccession and sale of artefacts from HMS Victory (1744) to raise money to pay the salvor.